1) For the purposes of this Convention, unless the context otherwise requires:
a) the terms ‘a Contracting State’ and ‘the other Contracting State’ mean the United Kingdom or the Federal Republic of Germany, as the context requires;
b) the term ‘United Kingdom’ means Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including any area outside the territorial sea of the United Kingdom designated under its laws concerning the Continental Shelf and in accordance with international law as an area within which the rights of the United Kingdom with respect to the sea-bed and subsoil and their natural resources may be exercised;
c) the term ‘Germany’ means the Federal Republic of Germany and, when used in a geographical sense, the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as the area of the sea-bed, its subsoil and the superjacent water column adjacent to the territorial sea, wherein the Federal Republic of Germany exercises sovereign rights and jurisdiction in conformity with international law and its national legislation for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing the living and non-living natural resources;
d) the term ‘person’ includes an individual, a company and any other body of persons;
e) the term ‘company’ means any body corporate or any entity which is treated as a body corporate for tax purposes;
f) the term ‘enterprise’ applies to the carrying on of any business;
g) the term ‘business’ includes the performance of professional services and of other activities of an independent character;
h) the terms ‘enterprise of a Contracting State’ and ‘enterprise of the other Contracting State’ mean respectively an enterprise carried on by a resident of a Contracting State and an enterprise carried on by a resident of the other Contracting State;
i) the term ‘international traffic’ means any transport by a ship or aircraft operated by an enterprise of a Contracting State, except when the ship or aircraft is operated solely between places in the other Contracting State;
j) the term ‘national’ means:
aa) in relation to the United Kingdom any British citizen, or any British subject not possessing the citizenship of any other Commonwealth country or territory, provided he has the right of abode in the United Kingdom; and any legal person, partnership, association or other entity deriving its status as such from the law in force in the United Kingdom;
bb) in relation to Germany any German within the meaning of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany and any legal person, partnership and association deriving its status as such from the laws in force in Germany;
k) the term ‘competent authority’ means:
aa) in the case of the United Kingdom the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs or their authorised representative.
bb) in the case of Germany the Federal Ministry of Finance or the agency to which it has delegated its powers;
2) As regards the application of the Convention at any time by a Contracting State any term not defined therein shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the meaning that it has at that time under the law of that Contracting State for the purposes of the taxes to which the Convention applies, any meaning under the applicable tax laws of that State prevailing over a meaning given to the term under other laws of that State.